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Four Brain Surgeries. A House Fire. Thank God She Had Insurance. · She's On The Money

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Speaker 1: My name is Natasha Bamblett. I'm a proud First Nations woman,
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Speaker 1: and I'm here to acknowledge country. Hello, beautiful friends. We
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Speaker 1: gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people. We thank, acknowledge,
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Speaker 1: and respect the Aboriginal people's land that we're gathering on today.
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Speaker 1: take pleasure in all the land and respect all that
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Speaker 1: you see. She's on the Money podcast, acknowledges culture, country,
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Speaker 1: community and connections, bringing you the tools, knowledge and resources
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Speaker 1: for you to thrive.
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Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
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Speaker 2: that lets you be pervy about other people's money stories
0:56
Speaker 2: for educational purposes, of course. Welcome back to another one
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Speaker 2: of our money diaries brought to you by our friends
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Speaker 2: at Sky Wealth, where I get the absolute privilege of
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Speaker 2: sitting down with one of our beautiful She's on the
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Speaker 2: Money community members and having a chat to them all
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Speaker 2: about their journey. Let's jump straight into it because this
1:12
Speaker 2: week I got a message and it sounded exactly like this.
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Speaker 3: Hi, She's on the Money.
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Speaker 2: Shortly after purchasing our dream home, our blueberry farm, disaster struck.
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Speaker 2: Not once, but twice. And we needed not three, but
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Speaker 2: four of our insurances. Flash forward 12 months and the
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Speaker 2: dumpster fire year that was 2025 is now firmly in
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Speaker 2: the trash. We are well on our way to recovering, rebuilding,
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Speaker 2: and dare I say, even thriving. I have a whole
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Speaker 2: new perspective on life, money, and what really matters. I
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Speaker 2: would love to share my story, mostly to highlight just
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Speaker 2: how important insurances are. If you don't think it can
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Speaker 2: happen to you, well, I'm sorry to say it can.
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Speaker 2: And in this case, it did. Marnie Tyrus, welcome to
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Speaker 2: the show.
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Speaker 3: Hey, thanks for having me. Thank you for.
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Speaker 2: Wanting to share your story because I feel like so
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Speaker 2: many times I'm like, get insurance, get insurance, please, please
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Speaker 2: get insurance.
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Speaker 3: Hey, have you thought about insurance?
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Speaker 2: And people are like, yeah, yeah, yeah, no worries.
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Speaker 3: It's not my priority. No, get insurance. Yeah, exactly.
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Speaker 2: And I don't want you to need it either. but
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Speaker 2: I'm so glad that you had it.
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Speaker 3: So am I. Yeah.
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Speaker 2: Before we dive any deeper, I need to know, if
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Speaker 2: I asked you to give your money habits a grade
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Speaker 2: from A through to F, is it A plus because
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Speaker 2: you had insurance or what would you grade yourself?
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Speaker 3: Look, I'm trying to get better at, you know, not
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Speaker 3: having imposter syndrome and I'm going to put myself at
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Speaker 3: an A minus. There's a little bit of work to do,
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Speaker 3: but I'm feeling pretty solid. Oh, I'm excited about this.
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Speaker 3: All right.
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Speaker 2: Can you tell me a little bit more about your
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Speaker 2: money story and the things that have impacted it?
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Speaker 3: So I have Two absolutely beautiful parents, but they've got
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Speaker 3: quite contrasting money values themselves. My dad is super conservative, really,
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Speaker 3: really frugal. He moved out when he was 15 and
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Speaker 3: talks about only having like one carton of eggs to
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Speaker 3: last a week. So his very scarcity mindset when it
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Speaker 3: comes to money. And my mom, on the other hand,
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Speaker 3: really enjoys a shopping trip. And I have memories of
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Speaker 3: being quite a young child and going shopping with mom
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Speaker 3: and she'd have put things on the credit card and
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Speaker 3: go shh don't tell dad and so there was a
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Speaker 3: little bit of like hiding and shame around her purchases
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Speaker 3: and that made me feel shame at a like as
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Speaker 3: a six-year-old about shopping and I very much idolized my
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Speaker 3: dad and have grown up to be much more like
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Speaker 3: him with you know working two jobs saving every penny
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Speaker 3: trying to kind of conserve money as much as possible
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Speaker 3: but also recognizing that I can just work. If I
3:43
Speaker 3: don't have money, I can work hard and hustle hard
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Speaker 3: and try and get more of it, which is very
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Speaker 3: much like my dad. Totally.
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Speaker 2: And when you're six, if you're told, shh, don't tell dad,
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Speaker 2: I think that sometimes for little kids, they go, oh,
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Speaker 2: a secret. But that would have, I feel like, been
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Speaker 2: quite weighty.
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Speaker 3: Because you're like, well, what if dad asks me? What
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Speaker 3: am I meant to say?
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Speaker 2: Is that something that you just remember playing in your mind?
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Speaker 2: Because it's quite pivotal if you're saying at six, I
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Speaker 2: remember this happening. Clearly that was impactful for you.
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Speaker 3: Yeah. I think looking back on it, dad never actually
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Speaker 3: restricted mom from buying anything. She would have never got
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Speaker 3: in trouble for buying the dress that she put on
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Speaker 3: the credit card, but she would say these things as
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Speaker 3: a joke. But as a six-year-old, you don't know that.
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Speaker 3: And you don't know what their financial situation is. As
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Speaker 3: an adult, I can see that they were quite comfortable
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Speaker 3: and we had a really comfortable life. But dad being
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Speaker 3: so conservative with money and kind of scarcity mindset, wouldn't
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Speaker 3: have appreciated kind of frivolous spending, even though they had
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Speaker 3: the capacity for it. And so as a young kid,
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Speaker 3: you take that on board. And you, for me, that
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Speaker 3: led me to wanting to save, wanting to start work
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Speaker 3: at like technically 14 months, but we weren't. Relatable. Yeah.
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Speaker 3: I think it was a relatable for a lot of
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Speaker 3: people back then. Um, yeah. And you, you take that
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Speaker 3: shame on board and I think it's taken a little
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Speaker 3: while to unpack it as an adult.
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Speaker 2: Oh, that's a bit rough. Like, especially because shame is
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Speaker 2: something that I don't think anyone should have or carry.
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Speaker 2: How have you been unpacking that? Cause that feels like
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Speaker 2: a lot.
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Speaker 3: It's taken a while to be comfortable with spending, to
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Speaker 3: be honest. Um, And there's some real positives from that.
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Speaker 3: I'm a great saver.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I can see. You were like, I save every
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Speaker 2: penny and I think I'm an A-. I'm like, oh,
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Speaker 2: this is going to be a good one, guys.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, but I used to have to ask permission to
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Speaker 3: buy clothes or I need validation from someone to be like, oh, no,
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Speaker 3: it's okay to spend that money. And not that anyone
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Speaker 3: has ever restricted me. This is not financial abuse in
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Speaker 3: any way, shape or form. But internally, I would need
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Speaker 3: that validation that it's okay to spend the money. even
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Speaker 3: though it's my money and I've earned it and I'm
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Speaker 3: working to get better at that.
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Speaker 2: That is so relatable for me because like I, until
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Speaker 2: you mentioned that, I do that to my husband all
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Speaker 2: the time. And he's always like, why are you asking me?
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Speaker 2: And I'll be like, well, do you think that this
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Speaker 2: is like a silly purchase or do you think? And
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Speaker 2: he's like, it's a talk. get it like if you
6:15
Speaker 2: want it and I'll be like oh yeah but like
6:17
Speaker 2: that's a bit silly like it is a bit more
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Speaker 2: expensive than all the other top and he's just like
6:22
Speaker 2: why are you asking me and then sometimes I won't
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Speaker 2: ask him about a purchase because like it's not for
6:27
Speaker 2: me it's for the house and he'll be like Your
6:30
Speaker 2: like conversation about money can be a little bit confusing sometimes, Victoria.
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Speaker 3: And I'll be like, whatever. My partner is exactly the same.
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Speaker 3: He's like, just buy the clothes. You need more clothes. Yes.
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Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. Well, at least I'm not alone on that.
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Speaker 2: So tell me, you're growing up. You've maybe been working
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Speaker 2: since 14 years and nine months. What happens after you
6:52
Speaker 2: graduate from school?
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Speaker 3: So graduated straight into university, working while at university. Until
7:00
Speaker 3: my last two years. And during that time period, working
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Speaker 3: while on placement wasn't really achievable. And so over the
7:09
Speaker 3: last two years of my uni degree, I racked up
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Speaker 3: about $ 10, 000 of personal debt just to survive placement and
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Speaker 3: just for living expenses.
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Speaker 4: Wait.
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Speaker 2: But like, I'm not like, that's not judgment or weight.
7:19
Speaker 2: That's like a, hold on, you didn't work and did
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Speaker 2: placement and you only racked up 10 grand of debt.
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Speaker 2: That's impressive.
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Speaker 3: I had built up a bit of savings that helped
7:28
Speaker 3: get through the year, but- Oh, and you got through
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Speaker 3: that too. No, that would have felt bad. I think
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Speaker 3: at that point in time, my view on money was
7:35
Speaker 3: a little bit different and I was a bit more like,
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Speaker 3: you either have it or you don't have it. And
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Speaker 3: if you don't have it, you work harder to get
7:40
Speaker 3: it and I'll just work harder. Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. So,
7:44
Speaker 3: Tell me more. You get through uni, you got through that,
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Speaker 3: then what? Then we dive into the workforce and I've
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Speaker 3: been working for the last 10 years in a job
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Speaker 3: I love, kind of progressively moving through the training processes
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Speaker 3: that happen in my field to the point that I've
8:01
Speaker 3: just completed my specialist training as of this year. Of
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Speaker 3: course she has. Which resulted in a significantly promotion that
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Speaker 3: I was very, very fortunate to get.
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Speaker 2: Were you fortunate or did you just work really hard
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Speaker 2: and that was kind of the outcome of all the
8:15
Speaker 2: hard work you did?
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Speaker 3: Maybe a little bit from column A and a little
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Speaker 3: bit from column B.
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Speaker 2: I love when women are like, I'm so lucky. I'm like,
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Speaker 2: that's so crazy that you work so hard and then
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Speaker 2: this luck just finds you.
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Speaker 4: No, I.
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Speaker 3: Do think there's, I'm very fortunate. I've got a lot
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Speaker 3: of privilege. I've worked really hard, but I can recognize
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Speaker 3: that privilege has helped me get to where I am
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Speaker 3: today as well. And about two and a half years ago,
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Speaker 3: we were looking to buy a property, a place to live.
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Speaker 3: And there were whispers that my partner's business was going
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Speaker 3: to be shut down and that they would be made redundant,
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Speaker 3: which ultimately is what happened. And as a joke, they
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Speaker 3: mentioned to me, why don't you look at a farm
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Speaker 3: and we can kill two birds with one stone, have
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Speaker 3: a place to live and somewhere for me to work.
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Speaker 3: I definitely didn't take it as a joke and I
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Speaker 3: was immediately on realestate.com looking for farms and had us
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Speaker 3: inspecting this property that was a blueberry farm the very
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Speaker 3: next day and I just fell in love with it.
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Speaker 3: My partner was not as convinced and I had to
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Speaker 3: drag them across the line and now they absolutely adore
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Speaker 3: it and couldn't think of anything more they want to
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Speaker 3: spend their time doing. We signed the the contract for
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Speaker 3: this blueberry farm to say the day that they signed
9:35
Speaker 3: their redundancy package, which is somewhat terrifying and like incredibly risky.
9:40
Speaker 3: That's crazy.
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Speaker 2: So I'm just assuming that your partner worked kind of
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Speaker 2: in farming.
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Speaker 3: Is that right?
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Speaker 2: Because that feels like a no, you were just like,
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Speaker 2: let's go. We can be farmers.
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Speaker 3: No, I have extended family that are, I'm technically fifth
9:54
Speaker 3: generation farmer, but my mum left the farm when she
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Speaker 3: was 18 and I grew up in the city. My
10:01
Speaker 3: partner has no agricultural background. So this was literally just
10:05
Speaker 3: diving in headfirst, eyes closed. And I think some of
10:09
Speaker 3: that ignorance was necessary because I think if we knew
10:12
Speaker 3: what we were heading into, I don't know if we
10:15
Speaker 3: would have done it, but we love it. It's been incredible.
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Speaker 2: So tell me, how do you go, you know what,
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Speaker 2: both of us have it in our blood, but maybe
10:23
Speaker 2: not actual experience in this.
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Speaker 3: We could run a farm.
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Speaker 2: How hard could it be?
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Speaker 3: I think it's called delusion. I love delusion.
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Speaker 2: That's literally what drives me, but just delusion. blueberries is niche,
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Speaker 2: my friend. Is that just what was available? Is that
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Speaker 2: something that you were like, oh, I've started looking into
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Speaker 2: farming and blueberries is like something I'm really interested in? Like,
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Speaker 2: how does this come to literal fruition?
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Speaker 3: We'd always dreamed of having a bit of a hobby
10:49
Speaker 3: farm at some point, you know, with some chickens and
10:53
Speaker 3: a large veggie garden, but never anything on a commercial
10:57
Speaker 3: scale like this. And it was just that one off
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Speaker 3: joking comment that led me to start looking at farms
11:05
Speaker 3: on realestate.com. It wasn't necessarily blueberries specific that we were
11:08
Speaker 3: looking for. I looked at cherry farms and other orchards,
11:12
Speaker 3: but I just, I fell in love with this property
11:15
Speaker 3: when we came out and inspected it. Oh, I love this.
11:18
Speaker 3: That's so cool.
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Speaker 2: So when you buy a farm, look, I'm talking from
11:23
Speaker 2: a space where my family are farming in Tasmania and
11:27
Speaker 2: And so I kind of understand how the sale of
11:30
Speaker 2: our farm went when that happened. But When you bought
11:34
Speaker 2: this farm, did you buy it with all of the stuff,
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Speaker 2: like the tractors, the trailers, you know, everything that was
11:41
Speaker 2: in the shed? Like what happens there or did they
11:45
Speaker 2: kind of fleece it and go, well, we've got some
11:47
Speaker 2: blueberry bushes and, you know, set it up again? Like
11:50
Speaker 2: how does that work? Because is it a business purchase
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Speaker 2: and a property purchase? Like how does the mix go?
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Speaker 3: So the person that had owned the property before us
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Speaker 3: did not have the blueberry farm as their primary interest.
12:03
Speaker 3: And in fact, I'm highly suspicious that there was more
12:06
Speaker 3: nefarious deals. Oh, interesting.
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Speaker 2: Because maybe you found some paraphernalia?
12:13
Speaker 3: Paraphernalia, debt collectors, ASICs notifications, finding out that one of
12:19
Speaker 3: their other properties had been shut down due to an
12:22
Speaker 3: illegal immigration scam. Wow.
12:24
Speaker 1: Yeah.
12:25
Speaker 3: Okay. All right. So the farm was... exceptionally run down.
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Speaker 3: The bushes had been neglected for five, if not 10
12:35
Speaker 3: years at this point. So they weren't selling the business
12:38
Speaker 3: and I wouldn't have wanted to buy the business. I
12:41
Speaker 3: wouldn't have wanted to touch it with a 10-foot pole
12:43
Speaker 3: because of the reputation it was associated with. So we
12:46
Speaker 3: bought it just as a land and house package that
12:49
Speaker 3: happened to have blueberry farm infrastructure on it. There was
12:54
Speaker 3: a chattels list included with the sale with a bunch
12:58
Speaker 3: of farm equipment on it. However, despite the fact that
13:02
Speaker 3: we repeatedly flagged that we hadn't seen many of the
13:05
Speaker 3: things on the shadow list, they said, no, that's correct.
13:08
Speaker 3: And we put our offer in based on the shadows list,
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Speaker 3: which was probably worth about 100K in terms of farming equipment,
13:16
Speaker 3: only to find out that none of it was on
13:18
Speaker 3: the property. And what do you do in that circumstance?
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Speaker 3: We had some power with our contract due to building
13:25
Speaker 3: a pest to go back and renegotiate. Unfortunately, the seller
13:30
Speaker 3: would not come to the table and we actually exited
13:32
Speaker 3: the contract and I cried all weekend.
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Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. I would have too, but also that's
13:37
Speaker 2: just such a bad way to start when you're like, hey,
13:40
Speaker 2: like we're paying for all of this stuff and it's
13:43
Speaker 2: a lie. Like I would have to exit too. So
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Speaker 2: then what happened? How did you get back into the farm?
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Speaker 3: The next week they came back and said, okay, we
13:51
Speaker 3: accept your negotiations and we knocked off. We were looking
13:54
Speaker 3: to knock off about 100K, which is the equivalent value
13:57
Speaker 3: of the shadows list, but they knocked off 50K off
14:00
Speaker 3: the purchase price, which I guess was the minimum that
14:02
Speaker 3: we were happy to move forward with the sale. Yeah, okay.
14:05
Speaker 1: All right.
14:06
Speaker 3: I like that.
14:06
Speaker 2: But also that gives me anxiety and I can see
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Speaker 2: that that would have made you feel really uneasy. So
14:11
Speaker 2: now the narrative of like, we signed for this property
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Speaker 2: on the same day my partner signed his redundancy papers,
14:17
Speaker 2: that would have been even more of a mix of
14:19
Speaker 2: excitement and also anxiety.
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Speaker 3: And financial pressure because fast forward, my partner did actually
14:25
Speaker 3: get another salaried job relatively quickly, but not at this point.
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Speaker 3: So taking on this farm with a this very rundown
14:34
Speaker 3: with a negative reputation without the infrastructure that we thought
14:37
Speaker 3: we were getting when we've just signed a redundancy. Just
14:42
Speaker 3: a little bit like scary.
14:45
Speaker 2: That's a little bit terrifying. And now fast forward, you
14:49
Speaker 2: have this beautiful farm, you've restored it. And I say
14:52
Speaker 2: you've restored it, not because you told us that, but
14:54
Speaker 2: because while you and I are talking, I'm snooping you
14:57
Speaker 2: on Instagram and it is stunning.
14:59
Speaker 1: Yeah.
15:01
Speaker 2: And oh my God, when you said, oh, the blueberry
15:03
Speaker 2: bushes were neglected, I'm like thinking as you're talking, I'm like,
15:06
Speaker 2: they don't look neglected, but like they look fruitful. Like
15:09
Speaker 2: they look like they are thriving.
15:11
Speaker 3: Only now. The place was a nightmare when we got here.
15:15
Speaker 3: But also we didn't know what we didn't know. We
15:17
Speaker 3: didn't know how bad it was until we started making
15:20
Speaker 3: connections with other blueberry farmers and realized just how neglected
15:25
Speaker 3: they'd been. but they're looking so much better now. Oh,
15:28
Speaker 3: they look good. They look, I love the, anyway.
15:31
Speaker 2: So moving on, I want to know, how does the
15:34
Speaker 2: story then turn into 2025 being a dumpster fire of
15:39
Speaker 2: a year?
15:39
Speaker 3: Yeah. So 2025 wasn't great. So 2025 was our first
15:43
Speaker 3: harvest and we were both working full-time jobs and juggling
15:48
Speaker 3: running harvest with about 15 staff. And absolutely loving it.
15:53
Speaker 3: Like we both just froth over how much joy we
15:56
Speaker 3: get out of harvest. It's hard work, but it's so rewarding.
16:00
Speaker 3: And we are coming up to the tail end of
16:02
Speaker 3: harvest and I'd been feeling so crook. I'd been waking up,
16:09
Speaker 3: feeling super dizzy, morning sickness, pounding headache. And I honestly,
16:14
Speaker 3: I did like five pregnancy tests. I was convinced I
16:16
Speaker 3: was pregnant. You're like, something's going on here. Something's not right.
16:20
Speaker 3: And then I was like, Look, I'm working full time
16:23
Speaker 3: and doing farm. It is a lot. I'm wearing my
16:27
Speaker 3: body down, but I've got less than four weeks of
16:29
Speaker 3: harvest left. I can keep pushing through. Unfortunately, I couldn't
16:33
Speaker 3: keep pushing through. I just got sicker and sicker to
16:35
Speaker 3: the point that I was profusely vomiting and kind of
16:40
Speaker 3: unsteady on my feet and not feeling well. And it
16:44
Speaker 3: took a little while to get to the diagnosis, but
16:47
Speaker 3: I actually had obstructive hydrocephalus due to a non-cancerous mass
16:52
Speaker 3: on my brain.
16:53
Speaker 2: Jeez Louise, you really said, let's be dramatic.
16:57
Speaker 4: Yep.
16:58
Speaker 3: Yeah. I ended up having four emergency brain surgeries over
17:01
Speaker 3: a space of about six weeks while my partner's still
17:05
Speaker 3: trying to juggle the farm harvest going on. And I just...
17:11
Speaker 3: I was really, really crook. Yeah.
17:13
Speaker 2: You had to have brain surgery and your husband is
17:16
Speaker 2: worrying about harvesting blueberries. This is chaos, my friend.
17:20
Speaker 3: Yeah. It wasn't a fun time. I had something called
17:25
Speaker 3: an extraventricular drain, so a drain that comes out of
17:28
Speaker 3: your brain attached to a device next to the bed. Literally,
17:32
Speaker 3: you can't move your head because your position of your
17:34
Speaker 3: head like is what's causing the drainage. And so I
17:39
Speaker 3: was like confined to the bed for, I think I
17:42
Speaker 3: had that in for 16 days in total.
17:44
Speaker 2: Like in hospital, I'm assuming. They don't let you go
17:48
Speaker 2: home with a tube in your brain.
17:50
Speaker 3: No, no. In hospital, in the high dependency unit. And
17:54
Speaker 3: I was just lying there and every time I was
17:56
Speaker 3: looking at going into another surgery, I was just so
17:59
Speaker 3: terrified that I would wake up unable to speak or
18:02
Speaker 3: unable to use half of my body or unable to
18:06
Speaker 3: be me. And I was just so scared. And I
18:10
Speaker 3: was just so grateful that I knew that I had
18:13
Speaker 3: income protection because I knew that then if something happened,
18:18
Speaker 3: if I woke, so the first time I woke up
18:20
Speaker 3: from my surgery, I still had the breathing tube in,
18:22
Speaker 3: but I'd woken up and I couldn't speak. And I
18:25
Speaker 3: was so convinced that I'd had something devastated going on
18:29
Speaker 3: in my brain. And I woke up in this panic
18:30
Speaker 3: because I couldn't speak. And that stayed with me for
18:34
Speaker 3: the rest of my like hospital journey, this terror that
18:37
Speaker 3: I would wake up from one of these surgeries, unable
18:40
Speaker 3: to be me, unable to, you know, continue living the
18:43
Speaker 3: life that we've just started. We'd had the farm for
18:45
Speaker 3: six months. Oh my heart.
18:48
Speaker 2: And like what you're saying, I'm just looking at it
18:50
Speaker 2: and going, oh my goodness. Like You started explaining it
18:53
Speaker 2: and I'm thinking, oh yeah, so you were worried in
18:55
Speaker 2: my head. I'm like, you're worried that you were going
18:57
Speaker 2: to go into surgery and then not come out of surgery.
19:01
Speaker 2: But arguably, you were worried about coming out of surgery very,
19:06
Speaker 2: very disabled. And to me, that's arguably more terrifying than
19:10
Speaker 2: not knowing at all. I was not scared about dying
19:13
Speaker 2: during this period. I think my partner was very scared
19:15
Speaker 2: that I would die. But for me, that wasn't my fear.
19:18
Speaker 2: My fear was that I would have a permanent disability.
19:22
Speaker 2: because something had gone wrong with the surgery.
19:24
Speaker 3: Yeah. Oh my goodness.
19:27
Speaker 2: So you get out of this when you're in hospital
19:29
Speaker 2: for six days with this external drain. Was that another
19:33
Speaker 2: surgery to remove it, I'm assuming?
19:35
Speaker 4: Yeah.
19:35
Speaker 3: So I had those drains go in as a temporizing measure.
19:38
Speaker 3: So that went in to remove the pressure and the
19:40
Speaker 3: fluid while they tried to work out what was going
19:43
Speaker 3: on because the diagnosis was really elusive. And unfortunately, over
19:49
Speaker 3: the next week, I just got sicker and sicker. So
19:51
Speaker 3: they took me for explorative brain surgery, which is not
19:55
Speaker 3: something that anyone ever wants to hear. Your surgeons are
19:58
Speaker 3: telling you, we're just going.
19:59
Speaker 2: To go in for a look.
20:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're going to do a surgery, but it's just
20:02
Speaker 3: to have a sticky beak.
20:04
Speaker 2: Yeah.
20:04
Speaker 3: And they went in and found the An arachnoid web.
20:08
Speaker 3: So there's like layers that protect your brain. One of
20:10
Speaker 3: them is the arachnoid layer. And there had been an
20:13
Speaker 3: overgrowth of that layer right in a pivotal point where
20:17
Speaker 3: the fluid that surrounds your brain drains and essentially formed
20:20
Speaker 3: a little plug. And the fluid that surrounds the brain
20:23
Speaker 3: and that it floats in couldn't drain and just kept
20:25
Speaker 3: building up and building up and building up, which is
20:27
Speaker 3: what created the hydrocephalus or the high pressure system that
20:30
Speaker 3: made me so sick.
20:31
Speaker 1: Right.
20:32
Speaker 2: And so this exploratory surgery was actually very productive because
20:36
Speaker 2: it identified why.
20:37
Speaker 3: And removed it.
20:39
Speaker 2: Okay. So you haven't ended, like, that's another question. I'm like,
20:42
Speaker 2: have you ended up with like a permanent.
20:44
Speaker 3: Shunt or something? Unfortunately, yes. Only because they removed it
20:48
Speaker 3: and I thought that would be sufficient. And I went
20:51
Speaker 3: home and I'd been home for about three weeks and
20:54
Speaker 3: I was just getting sicker and sicker again to the
20:56
Speaker 3: point that I collapsed at home. That's terrifying.
20:59
Speaker 4: Yes.
20:59
Speaker 3: Particularly for my partner who caught me. Yes. I think
21:02
Speaker 3: they're more traumatized than I am from all of this
21:05
Speaker 3: and ended up back in hospital with another EVD. And
21:11
Speaker 3: the thought was that whatever had caused the overgrowth of this,
21:14
Speaker 3: the arachnoid web had also damaged the reabsorption system for
21:19
Speaker 3: the fluid and it was no longer reabsorbing and the
21:23
Speaker 3: high pressure was just building up and building up again.
21:26
Speaker 3: So now I have a permanent shunt as well. So
21:28
Speaker 3: that was the fourth and final surgery.
21:30
Speaker 1: Yeah.
21:30
Speaker 2: And so then you have to now do a whole,
21:33
Speaker 2: obviously with anything related to the brain, there would be
21:36
Speaker 2: heaps of checks anyway, like consistently moving forward. But do
21:40
Speaker 2: you have ongoing maintenance for your shunt or is that
21:42
Speaker 2: just checked every time you go in?
21:44
Speaker 3: So I get annual MRIs at this point to make
21:47
Speaker 3: sure that everything's looking okay. The shunts have a lifespan
21:50
Speaker 3: of about 10 years. So at some point I will
21:53
Speaker 3: have to have it replaced.
21:54
Speaker 1: Aww.
21:55
Speaker 3: Aww.
21:56
Speaker 2: Rude.
21:57
Speaker 3: I know. My surgeon said she's had some that the shunts,
22:00
Speaker 3: also female surgeon, shout out for that. Oh, icon. I know, right?
22:05
Speaker 3: The shunt, she's had patients that have had their shunt
22:08
Speaker 3: last for 30 years. So my fingers and toes are
22:10
Speaker 3: crossed that that is my outcome. Okay.
22:12
Speaker 2: That's my fingers and my toes crossed for you as well,
22:14
Speaker 2: because that would be the best possible outcome. But it
22:17
Speaker 2: sounds like you carry a fair bit of medical trauma
22:20
Speaker 2: now as well. Like the anxiety your partner probably carry
22:23
Speaker 2: or does carry that as well.
22:25
Speaker 3: Yeah.
22:26
Speaker 2: Tell me about your insurance journey. How did you already
22:29
Speaker 2: have income protection?
22:31
Speaker 3: So I was really fortunate. I shortly after leaving university
22:35
Speaker 3: had seen a financial advisor. And at that point in time,
22:40
Speaker 3: my money philosophy was very much like, I don't know
22:44
Speaker 3: about money. I know about other things. I work hard
22:46
Speaker 3: for it and someone else can look after it. since
22:48
Speaker 3: discovered your podcast and Rich Dad Poor Dad and have
22:52
Speaker 3: changed my outlook on that and take much more ownership.
22:55
Speaker 2: Hey, but that's really responsible. If you're like, I just
23:00
Speaker 2: don't know what I don't know. A lot of people
23:02
Speaker 2: just go, well, how would I learn it?
23:04
Speaker 3: They have to create. I think either of those options
23:06
Speaker 3: is fantastic. Yeah. So I saw a financial advisor shortly
23:10
Speaker 3: after uni and they were very much like, you need
23:13
Speaker 3: to have insurances, ideally outside of super that match, I guess,
23:18
Speaker 3: my earning capacity in my job. So they got me
23:22
Speaker 3: an income protection, trauma insurance, TPD insurance, that's a little
23:26
Speaker 3: bit split between super and outside of super. Yeah, smart, smart.
23:30
Speaker 2: That's exactly how when I was a financial advisor, I
23:33
Speaker 2: would structure it and how any good financial advisor would
23:36
Speaker 2: structure it. So in my head, you've claimed on income
23:39
Speaker 2: protection and a trauma claim.
23:42
Speaker 3: Is that correct? And what type of payment did you
23:45
Speaker 3: get from that? So I had a 90-day waiting period
23:48
Speaker 3: for my income protection, which actually worked out fine because
23:53
Speaker 3: as my sick leave was running out from work, my
23:56
Speaker 3: income protection kicked in. And I had about three months
24:01
Speaker 3: off work to recover and then did a graded return
24:04
Speaker 3: to work. And work was unbelievably supportive in this process.
24:09
Speaker 3: And so I had my income protection covered about a
24:11
Speaker 3: month when I was still not working and then also
24:14
Speaker 3: covered what I was not getting as I had a
24:18
Speaker 3: graded return to work because I was only doing kind
24:21
Speaker 3: of five-hour shifts two days a week. So they kind
24:24
Speaker 3: of filled in the rest. So that equated to about
24:28
Speaker 3: 15K payout for income protection. And then I got a
24:31
Speaker 3: partial trauma payout of 25%, which equated to 30K. Only
24:37
Speaker 3: a partial trauma payout? Yes.
24:40
Speaker 2: Can I be pervy? Is that too, I was going
24:42
Speaker 2: to say, am I asking too many invasive questions? Because
24:45
Speaker 2: I feel like on this show, yes, I ask a
24:47
Speaker 2: lot of invasive money questions, but this is like your
24:49
Speaker 2: medical history.
24:50
Speaker 3: So I do apologize, but I'm just like, why was.
24:53
Speaker 2: It only partial when that quite clearly was a very
24:55
Speaker 2: significant medical event? Like that's not, you know, I had,
25:00
Speaker 2: so you can just to give people listening a little
25:03
Speaker 2: bit of context, like sometimes you are able to claim
25:06
Speaker 2: something like a melanoma and That is, stage one, you
25:10
Speaker 2: just had it cut out and you didn't need any
25:13
Speaker 2: type of treatment going on. I would assume that what
25:16
Speaker 2: you're going through is a lot more dramatic than that.
25:19
Speaker 2: But in my head, that melanoma kind of claim is
25:23
Speaker 2: about 25%. So- In my head, the math isn't my thing.
25:27
Speaker 2: What was the categorization?
25:29
Speaker 3: Yep. The maths wasn't my thing for me.
25:32
Speaker 4: Oh, good.
25:32
Speaker 3: I'm like, this doesn't make sense, queen. You deserve more.
25:36
Speaker 3: I raised it. It had two internal reviews. I did
25:39
Speaker 3: an internal complaint as well. The process went on for
25:42
Speaker 3: about nine months. I was supported by the financial advisors
25:46
Speaker 3: and the team there, but also had to do a
25:48
Speaker 3: lot of legwork myself to try and escalate it. And
25:52
Speaker 3: it got to the point that it was causing so
25:54
Speaker 3: much like It was re-triggering every time I had to
25:57
Speaker 3: deal with an email from the financial advisors or the
26:00
Speaker 3: insurance firm at the nine-month mark. I was just like,
26:04
Speaker 3: I can't keep fighting this battle. But essentially, the payout
26:09
Speaker 3: was based on the diagnosis of hydrocephalus, which is fluid
26:13
Speaker 3: on the brain. And there's a huge spectrum of hydrocephalus.
26:17
Speaker 3: from normal pressure hydrocephaluses, which is really common in our
26:21
Speaker 3: older people, to obstructive hydrocephalus, which is what I had,
26:25
Speaker 3: which is from an obstructing mass that needed to be removed. Unfortunately,
26:29
Speaker 3: my diagnosis of a subarachnoid web is unbelievably rare and
26:36
Speaker 3: niche and doesn't have a pigeonhole in the insurance industry.
26:42
Speaker 3: I guess, list of diagnoses that they pay out.
26:44
Speaker 2: That's what underwriting is for. That's what they meant. You're
26:48
Speaker 2: meant to go back and be like, cool, if I
26:49
Speaker 2: don't fit the diagnostic criteria, you guys work it out.
26:52
Speaker 3: And they looked at.
26:53
Speaker 2: All of that and thought, nah, what?
26:56
Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm so sorry.
26:57
Speaker 2: This stuff makes me so mad because I'm like, you
27:00
Speaker 2: deserved better, my queen.
27:02
Speaker 3: Yeah. I raise that this is trauma insurance. And what
27:05
Speaker 3: I've been through is an exceptional amount of trauma and
27:09
Speaker 3: four emergency brain surgeries, and how does this not qualify?
27:12
Speaker 3: And their list of exclusions, so they've got, my argument
27:16
Speaker 3: was that it should come under a benign brain tumor
27:19
Speaker 3: that needs to be removed because it was an abnormal
27:22
Speaker 3: growth of cells, which is the definition of a benign tumor.
27:25
Speaker 3: And there's a list of exclusions under that policy, which
27:28
Speaker 3: it wasn't one of the list of exclusions. So I
27:32
Speaker 3: tried to make the argument that it comes under that,
27:33
Speaker 3: which would have been a full payout, but- No bueno.
27:37
Speaker 4: Yeah.
27:37
Speaker 2: And I think that it was definitely worth you questioning
27:41
Speaker 2: it and pushing it. But at what point did you go,
27:43
Speaker 2: you know what, I'm done. I tap out. This is
27:45
Speaker 2: all too heavy. This is all too hard. My mental
27:48
Speaker 2: health is worth more than this. How did you make
27:50
Speaker 2: that decision? And was that a decision you made between
27:53
Speaker 2: you and your financial advisor to stop pursuing it? Or
27:56
Speaker 2: was this more you pushing it? What was that dynamic?
27:59
Speaker 2: It was more me pushing it at this point. They'd
28:01
Speaker 2: done a lot of legwork initially to prompt a review
28:05
Speaker 2: of the case. But once I then kind of progressed
28:08
Speaker 2: to doing an internal complaint, that kind of tapped out
28:11
Speaker 2: at that point. And essentially it was my partner saying
28:14
Speaker 2: that this is just causing you so much stress.
28:18
Speaker 3: We are okay. We don't need the money. It's not
28:20
Speaker 3: worth it. That was me kind of going, yeah, okay,
28:24
Speaker 3: I'm going to stop. I think the other thing was
28:26
Speaker 3: I didn't know what other avenues were open to me
28:29
Speaker 3: to escalate it further.
28:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay.
28:31
Speaker 3: Okay.
28:31
Speaker 1: All right.
28:32
Speaker 2: That makes me sort of mad because I do genuinely
28:34
Speaker 2: think you deserve more. And like in these moments to me,
28:38
Speaker 2: that's where your advisor really has to step in and say, look,
28:42
Speaker 2: my client's still unhappy. This is my job to advocate
28:45
Speaker 2: and like be quite aggressive about it. That's to me
28:49
Speaker 2: an obligation, but it's like, I don't know them. I
28:52
Speaker 2: don't know the whole situation.
28:53
Speaker 3: So I can't.
28:54
Speaker 2: Really have an opinion, even though I really want.
28:56
Speaker 3: To have one.
28:56
Speaker 2: So can we fast forward? You had all of this.
28:59
Speaker 2: You said that you had a fourth surgery. It was
29:01
Speaker 2: to put a shunt in. How are you now, my friend?
29:04
Speaker 3: The road to recovery is longer than I think you
29:08
Speaker 3: kind of realize. I've had lots of headaches and fatigue
29:12
Speaker 3: issues following, which I'm working with a neurologist now to
29:16
Speaker 3: manage and actually doing a lot better. But my whole
29:20
Speaker 3: priorities have so shifted. after this experience and really just
29:24
Speaker 3: trying to prioritize health and wellbeing in the present so
29:28
Speaker 3: much more. And that has meant that I've actually pulled
29:31
Speaker 3: back from work a little bit to focus on my well-being.
29:35
Speaker 3: And my budget now for health-related expenses has gone up
29:39
Speaker 3: so much for things like medications, physio, psychology, and all
29:46
Speaker 3: of that. So, yeah. very much shifted what my focus
29:50
Speaker 3: is and, and also where my money goes to align
29:53
Speaker 3: with that.
29:53
Speaker 2: And what does that look like in your everyday? So
29:56
Speaker 2: obviously like there's more budget and you're probably, you know, going, no,
30:00
Speaker 2: I will go do an extra psych appointment or whatnot,
30:03
Speaker 2: but Has your outlook or your decisions in life changed
30:07
Speaker 2: as well? Have you been like, no, we're actually going
30:09
Speaker 2: to change what we do for retirement? Or no, we're
30:12
Speaker 2: going to actually change how we think about maybe or
30:14
Speaker 2: maybe not having a family or like in terms of
30:17
Speaker 2: like your life outlook, what would you say it was
30:20
Speaker 2: before and what it is now?
30:22
Speaker 3: I am much more focused on our enjoyment of the present,
30:27
Speaker 3: whereas I was very much like I think I do
30:30
Speaker 3: delay gratification really well and I was very much building
30:33
Speaker 3: for a future and hustling really hard for a future.
30:36
Speaker 3: And it was really apparent that that future is not guaranteed.
30:40
Speaker 3: So now I'm very much more, how can I enjoy
30:43
Speaker 3: the now? How can I look after me in the now?
30:46
Speaker 3: I'm not, you know, totally dismissing future me and future
30:50
Speaker 3: me's comfort. We've still got, you know, processes in place
30:53
Speaker 3: to make sure that she's set up as well. Just,
30:56
Speaker 3: you know, trying to enjoy life right now trying to
31:00
Speaker 3: enjoy my well-being right now because it is not guaranteed. No, absolutely.
31:04
Speaker 2: And that's why I'm asking because I'm like, this is
31:07
Speaker 2: a wild ride. You were like, Victoria, I was not well.
31:10
Speaker 2: And so I did a pregnancy test and it turns
31:12
Speaker 2: out it was not a brain tumor, but a brain tumor.
31:15
Speaker 3: Kind of a brain tumor.
31:16
Speaker 2: That's not what we were testing for here.
31:18
Speaker 3: That is....
31:21
Speaker 2: I would say given me a lot of whiplash and
31:23
Speaker 2: arguably you even more. So money dress, what other insurances
31:28
Speaker 2: did you need in 2025?
31:30
Speaker 3: So about six months after surgery, I just started going
31:34
Speaker 3: back to work and I was heading home one day
31:37
Speaker 3: and swang by the pub to have dinner with my
31:41
Speaker 3: partner and our housemate. And we were there for only
31:44
Speaker 3: 45 minutes and we're heading home. And as we're driving home,
31:46
Speaker 3: it's kind of sun setting, um, And there's a bit
31:49
Speaker 3: of a glow in the distance. I was like, it's
31:50
Speaker 3: a weird time for a bonfire. And then within 30 seconds, we, yeah, yeah.
31:57
Speaker 3: I feel sick talking about it. Sorry.
31:59
Speaker 2: I feel sick and I don't even know what's happened yet.
32:01
Speaker 3: Yeah. We kind of turned a bend and we're still
32:04
Speaker 3: about a K away from our house, but we can
32:06
Speaker 3: tell that it is coming from our home. And we
32:11
Speaker 3: drive up to seeing our house again. Completely ablaze. Your
32:15
Speaker 3: whole house? No, a garage at this point. Yeah, our
32:21
Speaker 3: garage was just a column about four metres into the
32:25
Speaker 3: air of just flames at this point. We pull up
32:29
Speaker 3: and a number of our neighbours are there and the
32:32
Speaker 3: fireys have been called and they've managed to get the
32:35
Speaker 3: dogs out of the house. Oh, good. Okay. I was like,
32:38
Speaker 3: what about your pets? Yeah, but we arrived before the
32:41
Speaker 3: fireys did. And within about a minute of getting home,
32:45
Speaker 3: the fire had spread to the roof of the granny flat,
32:48
Speaker 3: which sits one meter behind the garage and the roof
32:53
Speaker 3: of our main house, which sits just adjacent as well.
32:57
Speaker 3: And so it was just unbelievably terrifying watching it spread
33:02
Speaker 3: over our house and thinking that we were going, like
33:05
Speaker 3: we'd already lost the garage. The garage was completely gone.
33:08
Speaker 3: Thinking we were going to lose everything. My partner has
33:11
Speaker 3: run into as close as he can get to try
33:13
Speaker 3: and get water onto the roof of the main house
33:17
Speaker 3: to try and just stop it from spreading and losing everything.
33:20
Speaker 3: And within, sorry, it's really hard to talk about. Girlfriend,
33:25
Speaker 3: for good reason. I'm so sorry. Within about five minutes
33:28
Speaker 3: of us arriving, we had the fireys there and they
33:31
Speaker 3: were just unbelievably great. They were just phenomenal. They immediately
33:36
Speaker 3: got their big hoses and water onto the roof of
33:39
Speaker 3: our main house to stop it from spreading. They kind
33:42
Speaker 3: of left the garage to blaze because there was no
33:45
Speaker 3: point in saving that, but they managed to put out
33:48
Speaker 3: the fire that had started on the two dwellings that
33:51
Speaker 3: were on the property. And we had, I think there
33:56
Speaker 3: were seven fire crews there working for about five hours
33:59
Speaker 3: to put the fire out. Five hours? Yeah. So we
34:02
Speaker 3: got home at like six in the afternoon and they
34:05
Speaker 3: were there in kind of close to midnight. That is insane.
34:09
Speaker 3: I am so sorry. So what's the damage there? What
34:12
Speaker 3: did that look like?
34:13
Speaker 2: Obviously significant if it took five hours to put the
34:17
Speaker 2: damn thing out.
34:18
Speaker 3: So garage was gone. We knew that immediately. And can
34:22
Speaker 3: you believe it? Because we had CCTV footage, 17 minutes
34:26
Speaker 3: to destroy that building from start of fire to... the
34:31
Speaker 3: building gone 17 minutes.
34:33
Speaker 2: That's diabolical but also like I don't know does that
34:36
Speaker 2: give you like a kind of sense of peace that
34:38
Speaker 2: it happened so quickly that none of that was ever
34:40
Speaker 2: going to be in your control?
34:41
Speaker 3: Look there was a long time I felt really guilty
34:43
Speaker 3: like we were at the pub having a beer like.
34:47
Speaker 3: You shouldn't feel guilty for that though. Would if we
34:49
Speaker 3: were home but I'm actually really glad that we weren't
34:52
Speaker 3: home because if we were I think my partner and
34:56
Speaker 3: our housemate would have tried to put it out. by
34:59
Speaker 3: the time we get home, it was way too out
35:03
Speaker 3: of control that like, I ran up to it with
35:05
Speaker 3: a fire extinguisher and I got into like two meters
35:07
Speaker 3: from the base of the fire. And then I was like, oh,
35:11
Speaker 3: this fire extinguisher is not putting out, like it's a,
35:14
Speaker 3: what is probably like seven by six building. That's totally
35:19
Speaker 3: a blade. Like, A little fire extinguisher was not going
35:22
Speaker 3: to do anything. But I think if we were home,
35:24
Speaker 3: they would have tried and they would have significantly injured themselves.
35:27
Speaker 3: So in hindsight, I'm actually glad we weren't. But there's
35:31
Speaker 3: ages that I felt sick for the fact that we
35:33
Speaker 3: weren't home when it happened. Yeah, understandably so.
35:36
Speaker 2: I feel like we just carry guilt over things that
35:38
Speaker 2: sometimes are beyond our control.
35:40
Speaker 3: But how did this fire start? So we'd been in
35:43
Speaker 3: the middle of pruning for the blueberry season and we
35:46
Speaker 3: use these electric handheld pruners that have lithium batteries. And
35:50
Speaker 3: we popped one on charge and there'd been some thermal
35:53
Speaker 3: runaway from the lithium battery.
35:54
Speaker 2: And it just went straight up. And so obviously we've
35:57
Speaker 2: lost the garage. What was in the garage? We lost
36:00
Speaker 2: a significant amount of stuff.
36:02
Speaker 3: A lot of tools. That's expensive.
36:04
Speaker 4: Yeah.
36:04
Speaker 3: And collected over like 20 years. Yes. Unfortunately, my partner was,
36:09
Speaker 3: I guess, disproportionately affected by what we lost. We also
36:13
Speaker 3: lost water to the house because the tanks backed the fireplace.
36:18
Speaker 3: And the filtration system for our water was all lost.
36:21
Speaker 3: And we're on a farm, so we don't have town water.
36:24
Speaker 3: So that was logistically challenging. And the fire spread to
36:28
Speaker 3: the roof over our kitchen and study and the walls
36:32
Speaker 3: of our kitchen, but thankfully not a huge amount internally.
36:36
Speaker 3: We'd been in the process of renovating our living room
36:38
Speaker 3: and all of our living room walls had been taken
36:40
Speaker 3: off and stored in the garage. We still haven't fixed that. Oh,
36:44
Speaker 3: damn it. So we have unclad living room at the
36:47
Speaker 3: moment still a year on. Whatever.
36:49
Speaker 2: But like, oh, that's so rude.
36:52
Speaker 3: It's like, oh.
36:54
Speaker 2: Explain that in a way that makes it make sense.
36:56
Speaker 2: You're like, yeah, so the living room walls got burnt,
36:59
Speaker 2: but the fire wasn't in the living room. The walls
37:02
Speaker 2: for the living room are in the garage.
37:04
Speaker 3: Correct. Oh my goodness. I'm glad you can.
37:08
Speaker 2: Kind of laugh about this, but you said you had insurance.
37:11
Speaker 2: So like, I need to know what type of payout
37:14
Speaker 2: did you get? What were you covered for? Were there
37:17
Speaker 2: any errors in this?
37:19
Speaker 3: Look, it was a process and I'm really grateful that
37:21
Speaker 3: my partner is a project manager. was able to take
37:25
Speaker 3: the brunt of navigating this insurance system. So we had
37:30
Speaker 3: home and contents. So our content payout was 50K, which
37:35
Speaker 3: was great because while they weren't covered, we had double
37:39
Speaker 3: glazed windows that were being installed in there as well,
37:42
Speaker 3: which was probably about 20K of double glazing. I was
37:45
Speaker 3: about to say, Between walls and, you know, you said tools,
37:49
Speaker 3: like I just know that if I look at, you know,
37:51
Speaker 3: my dad's tools, for example, I just know there's more
37:54
Speaker 3: than 50 grand of his life savings poured into that.
37:57
Speaker 3: I think we've probably lost about 75k worth of stuff
38:02
Speaker 3: in the fire, but we were like 50k worth more
38:06
Speaker 3: than allows us to start rebuilding that. Oh, absolutely.
38:09
Speaker 2: It's not not worth it, but it's just disappointing that
38:12
Speaker 2: it's like not to the full extent.
38:14
Speaker 3: Yeah. But that always happens, right? Yeah. Because the windows
38:18
Speaker 3: and the cladding are building because they're not in yet.
38:22
Speaker 3: They're considered building supplies. So they get capped at 2K. Audacity. So,
38:28
Speaker 3: but that was okay. We were happy that it covered
38:32
Speaker 3: my partner rebuilding the a lot of his tools and
38:35
Speaker 3: works of play and stuff we need for the farm.
38:37
Speaker 3: And then we've just, as of last month, finished the
38:42
Speaker 3: rebuild of the garage. So we have a garage again,
38:45
Speaker 3: which is very exciting.
38:46
Speaker 2: Oh, good.
38:48
Speaker 3: I don't know exactly how much it costs because we
38:49
Speaker 3: opted not for a payout but for the insurance company
38:52
Speaker 3: to do it, which I was so glad when all
38:55
Speaker 3: of the oil prices– went up because I think everything
38:59
Speaker 3: would have become much more expensive. So I'm really glad
39:02
Speaker 3: that we weren't having to manage that. I'm guessing it
39:05
Speaker 3: was probably 250 to 300K to rebuild the garage.
39:09
Speaker 1: Yeah.
39:10
Speaker 2: Wow.
39:10
Speaker 3: And you know what?
39:11
Speaker 2: I didn't even know, like I did know, but I
39:13
Speaker 2: didn't know that it was such a significant option to
39:16
Speaker 2: be like, you rebuild the whole thing or give us
39:18
Speaker 2: cash and we will do it. And I think a
39:20
Speaker 2: lot of people would be like, oh, we can do
39:22
Speaker 2: it way better. We want to take all the cash,
39:24
Speaker 2: but I think you made the smart decision here.
39:26
Speaker 3: I think particularly with what happened with prices of equipment,
39:31
Speaker 3: with all the fuel craziness at the start of the year,
39:34
Speaker 3: and also just the emotional stress it would have added
39:37
Speaker 3: predominantly to my partner to be project managing and coordinating
39:41
Speaker 3: the rebuild. I'm really glad that we were able to
39:44
Speaker 3: just put that in someone else's hands and let them
39:47
Speaker 3: sort it out. And it meant that if anything... evolved
39:50
Speaker 3: or happened from there, which there were a few little
39:53
Speaker 3: issues that needed to be corrected. It didn't come out
39:55
Speaker 3: of our pocket. So we were so fortunate and we
39:58
Speaker 3: were so fortunate. It was just the garage and not
40:01
Speaker 3: the whole house that we were having to repair. Wow. Wow.
40:05
Speaker 2: You have been through it, my friend. So please get
40:08
Speaker 2: your insurances. Yes.
40:11
Speaker 3: Oh my God. All right.
40:12
Speaker 2: We know how much you got paid from your insurance,
40:14
Speaker 2: et cetera. But now tell me what do you do
40:16
Speaker 2: for work? How much money do you earn?
40:18
Speaker 3: I'm actually an emergency doctor. Of course she is, guys.
40:22
Speaker 2: That's why she took it so seriously at the start.
40:23
Speaker 3: She was like, oh. It was surreal being on the
40:27
Speaker 3: other side of the fence when it comes to healthcare.
40:30
Speaker 3: I don't know how patients do it. Being in the
40:35
Speaker 3: health profession and incredibly health literate, it was still terrifying.
40:41
Speaker 3: You're in the dark all the time. Your doctors and
40:45
Speaker 3: my doctors were phenomenal, but They forget to communicate things
40:48
Speaker 3: all the time. And I know what's going on in
40:50
Speaker 3: the background because I work in the system, but I
40:52
Speaker 3: don't know how patients do it. And I had to
40:55
Speaker 3: have family advocate extremely hard for me. My mom essentially
40:59
Speaker 3: called a Ryan's rule at one point when I was
41:01
Speaker 3: getting sicker and they refused to rescan me. And I
41:04
Speaker 3: ended up in surgery within an hour of that Ryan's
41:06
Speaker 3: rule because things were getting worse. And it was only
41:09
Speaker 3: through the advocacy of my loved ones that that was
41:13
Speaker 3: able to happen. I don't know how... families and patients
41:17
Speaker 3: navigate a healthcare system. And like we have one of
41:19
Speaker 3: the best healthcare systems in the world and it's still rubbish.
41:22
Speaker 2: That is crazy to me that you are also, you
41:26
Speaker 2: just dropped that really late in the game. At no
41:28
Speaker 2: point you were like, I'm a doctor, so I understand
41:30
Speaker 2: like medical, anything before this.
41:33
Speaker 3: How?
41:34
Speaker 2: And just the fact that you went through that and
41:35
Speaker 2: you were talking about medical trauma. I think that's such
41:38
Speaker 2: a powerful narrative as well, that even if you are arguably,
41:43
Speaker 2: and we just learned before how highly skilled and highly
41:46
Speaker 2: trained you are, even like one of the best doctors
41:50
Speaker 2: in the country can get medical trauma.
41:52
Speaker 3: Like that's, So disappointing, my friend. Like I had a
41:57
Speaker 3: phenomenal team.
41:58
Speaker 2: I have no criticism, but it's just. It's often not
42:01
Speaker 2: the people, my friend. It's the situation.
42:02
Speaker 3: And the system.
42:04
Speaker 1: Yeah.
42:04
Speaker 2: That doesn't mean that people weren't caring for you. It
42:08
Speaker 2: doesn't mean that it wasn't, you know, what it needed
42:11
Speaker 2: to be. And like a lot of the time, things
42:13
Speaker 2: like not being re-scanned, like that could have been in
42:17
Speaker 2: their minds the best possible decision. And you know now
42:21
Speaker 2: both sides. Has that changed how you practice as a doctor?
42:24
Speaker 3: Absolutely. So much so. I very much, I can take
42:30
Speaker 3: a silver lining from a really terrible experience. It is
42:32
Speaker 3: that I think it has made me a much more
42:34
Speaker 3: compassionate doctor. I don't think I was not a compassionate
42:38
Speaker 3: doctor beforehand, but understanding just the uncertainty and the fear
42:44
Speaker 3: that exists with that healthcare journey I try and be
42:48
Speaker 3: so much more conscious of just providing context when I'm
42:51
Speaker 3: seeing patients around what the next steps look like so
42:54
Speaker 3: that there's more transparency. They're not just sitting in a
42:58
Speaker 3: chair waiting two hours for results. They at least understand
43:01
Speaker 3: that the results will take two hours and someone will
43:04
Speaker 3: be back.
43:04
Speaker 4: Yeah.
43:05
Speaker 2: I'm not just fluffing around or like, you know, I've
43:07
Speaker 2: got distracted with another patient. I'm actually with another patient
43:10
Speaker 2: for the next two hours because I don't have an
43:12
Speaker 2: update for you.
43:13
Speaker 3: Did you want to grab a bicky? Yeah.
43:15
Speaker 1: Yeah.
43:16
Speaker 3: Or that there's conversations that are happening in the background
43:18
Speaker 3: that you're not aware of, but we are still providing
43:20
Speaker 3: you care. Yeah. And the other thing is that my
43:23
Speaker 3: recovery journey, because I could walk, well, I couldn't walk
43:29
Speaker 3: for the first week. It took a bunch of physio,
43:30
Speaker 3: but eventually I could walk again and I could talk
43:33
Speaker 3: and my limbs were all moving fine and I had
43:35
Speaker 3: no disability. I was kind of cleared from a surgical perspective,
43:39
Speaker 3: but recovery takes a much, much longer period. And I
43:43
Speaker 3: don't think we ever set patients up with that expectation
43:46
Speaker 3: and the resources for recovery very well. So now I
43:51
Speaker 3: kind of add a bit of a spiel around what
43:55
Speaker 3: recovery might look like outside of just the initial event
43:58
Speaker 3: in terms of, you know, the months to years it
44:01
Speaker 3: can take to recover from big surgeries or injuries and
44:05
Speaker 3: how you can get resources and support in the community
44:08
Speaker 3: for that. I try and I don't think we do
44:10
Speaker 3: a great job of setting up for like long-term well-being.
44:13
Speaker 3: We fix the acute problem. But I'm trying to be
44:16
Speaker 3: better at including what long-term recovery can look like after
44:20
Speaker 3: the acute issue is resolved. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, my goodness.
44:24
Speaker 2: So to go back to money, how much does an
44:28
Speaker 2: emergency doctor earn? I completed my specialist training in emergency
44:32
Speaker 2: medicine in May.
44:33
Speaker 3: This year, which is super exciting. Congrats. That is huge.
44:39
Speaker 3: Thank you. And managed to secure a part-time specialist appointment.
44:45
Speaker 3: which is incredibly difficult and most new consultants will need
44:49
Speaker 3: to travel to like one to two hours to get appointments.
44:53
Speaker 3: I was incredibly fortunate to get a part-time appointment at 0.75,
44:59
Speaker 3: so three days a week. So for context, in healthcare,
45:02
Speaker 3: everyone is on bands and there's no negotiating salaries. So
45:07
Speaker 3: I'm in a specialist medical practitioner band one, which is
45:12
Speaker 3: $ 116, 000 per annum at full time. So, prorated at 0.75,
45:17
Speaker 3: that's $ 162, 000 per annum. But I also have some allowances,
45:23
Speaker 3: callback rates in lieu for shift work, which equates to
45:27
Speaker 3: about an extra $ 75, 000 per annum. Wow. But also so deserved.
45:33
Speaker 4: Yeah.
45:34
Speaker 3: I don't... And no, it's a lot of money and
45:36
Speaker 3: I'm so privileged to be earning that. Do you know what?
45:39
Speaker 2: No, no, I'm not taking that.
45:41
Speaker 3: I get that you're so privileged.
45:42
Speaker 2: And, you know, like just even to be able to
45:44
Speaker 2: fall into the pathway of being able to go to
45:46
Speaker 2: medical school, having the education behind you to, you know,
45:49
Speaker 2: be able to do that, fine. But no, no, no.
45:52
Speaker 2: Like you're not privileged to earn that amount of money
45:55
Speaker 2: when you're dealing with the entire world's trauma on a
45:58
Speaker 2: day-to-day basis. Like I'm so sorry. No, no, I'm just
46:02
Speaker 2: not accepting that.
46:05
Speaker 3: I think I'm really lucky because I genuinely love my job.
46:08
Speaker 3: I love being an ED doctor. It's so chaotic and
46:11
Speaker 3: it's so bedlocked and it's crazy, but you have such
46:14
Speaker 3: a great team and everyone rallies and you get the
46:16
Speaker 3: privilege of being involved in someone's worst day. And that's just,
46:20
Speaker 3: to me, super, super special. But it is a lot
46:24
Speaker 3: of hard work and it is exhausting and it's so
46:26
Speaker 3: much trauma that Like it's a lot of money, but yeah,
46:30
Speaker 3: I think there's.
46:31
Speaker 2: I think just healthcare in general is not getting paid enough.
46:34
Speaker 3: Full stop, end of story.
46:35
Speaker 2: Like we just... pay you guys more.
46:38
Speaker 3: Particularly our nurses. Yes. What our nurses have to deal
46:42
Speaker 3: with for what they get paid is just ridiculous. I
46:46
Speaker 3: couldn't agree more. And you know what?
46:48
Speaker 2: I think that there are a fair few nurses listening
46:50
Speaker 2: right now going, from a doctor.
46:51
Speaker 3: Thank you.
46:53
Speaker 2: Because we can advocate day in, day out. But they go, Victoria,
46:55
Speaker 2: you're a money person. You probably think everyone deserves to
46:58
Speaker 2: be paid more. But from a doctor being like, our
47:01
Speaker 2: nurses deserve more, I think that means a lot.
47:04
Speaker 3: They cop out. all of it. They just don't get
47:07
Speaker 3: enough kudos in my opinion. I love that. All right.
47:10
Speaker 2: Next question I've got is what is your big money goal?
47:12
Speaker 2: Because you own the dream blueberry farm, like you're a doctor,
47:16
Speaker 2: your partner also works full time. Like what are you
47:19
Speaker 2: currently working towards?
47:20
Speaker 3: So my long-term money goal is actually to be able
47:23
Speaker 3: to retire my partner. so that they can focus on
47:25
Speaker 3: the farm full-time. Love, that's so exciting. Yeah, I want
47:29
Speaker 3: them to not work two full-time jobs and just work
47:32
Speaker 3: one full-time job on the farm. So cool. I think
47:34
Speaker 3: it would massively, like, they unfortunately don't love their job
47:39
Speaker 3: the way that I love mine. I just want them
47:41
Speaker 3: to have joy and quality of life, which their job
47:45
Speaker 3: is not really affording at the moment. So that is
47:47
Speaker 3: the goal. hopefully in the next one to two years.
47:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, very fair. All right, let's go to a really
47:53
Speaker 2: quick break. And on the flip side, I want to
47:54
Speaker 2: talk about investments, debts. I'm not going to bother touching
47:58
Speaker 2: on personal insurance because I feel like we have touched
48:01
Speaker 2: on that. But your best and worst money habits are
48:03
Speaker 2: also coming. So please, guys, don't go anywhere. Money Dirst,
48:11
Speaker 2: we are back.
48:12
Speaker 3: Do you invest? Yep, we do invest. So I have
48:15
Speaker 3: investments inside and outside of super. So we've got about
48:18
Speaker 3: 20K in US shares, 12K in Australian shares and 10K
48:25
Speaker 3: in gold. And then our biggest investment is really the farm.
48:28
Speaker 3: I love that.
48:29
Speaker 2: And over the long term, obviously, I feel like when
48:33
Speaker 2: you buy a farm and you've given us or me
48:35
Speaker 2: enough like insight that maybe some nefarious things were going
48:40
Speaker 2: on there, your blueberry bushes were neglected. I'm assuming that
48:43
Speaker 2: you've had to invest a significant amount into this farm.
48:46
Speaker 2: is it going to become a farm that produces a
48:49
Speaker 2: full-time income for your partner? Or when you say, oh,
48:52
Speaker 2: we want to retire or I want to retire him,
48:55
Speaker 2: is that kind of a lifestyle decision as well? What
48:58
Speaker 2: type of income in this period of time into the
49:01
Speaker 2: future do you think you will be generating?
49:04
Speaker 3: I don't think it will ever match his current salary,
49:08
Speaker 3: but I think at the moment we've had two seasons
49:10
Speaker 3: and both have run at a loss. But less of
49:13
Speaker 3: a loss than we were expecting. So that was a
49:15
Speaker 3: money win. Very cool.
49:16
Speaker 2: But also kind of expected in the business world, like, sorry,
49:19
Speaker 2: you don't just buy into a farm that needed a
49:21
Speaker 2: whole heap of love and had been neglected and bam,
49:25
Speaker 2: profit in the first year. Like I would be so confused.
49:28
Speaker 4: Yeah.
49:28
Speaker 3: So we weren't expecting a profit in our first few years,
49:30
Speaker 3: particularly with the amount of work that the farm needed.
49:33
Speaker 3: But the great thing is because it needed so much work,
49:35
Speaker 3: there is so much room for us to scale and
49:38
Speaker 3: grow and And so we produce around 10 to 12
49:43
Speaker 3: tons of blueberries a year. That's so many blueberries. It's
49:46
Speaker 3: so many blueberries. Toddlers absolutely would lose their mind.
49:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't even. Like blueberries keep me in business.
49:53
Speaker 2: Do you eat a lot of blueberries?
49:55
Speaker 3: Every day. I love them. You're not sick of them?
49:57
Speaker 4: No.
49:58
Speaker 3: You're not going to turn into one? Possibly. What is it? Violet?
50:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, Violet.
50:04
Speaker 3: What's her name?
50:04
Speaker 2: Violet Beauregard.
50:06
Speaker 3: Oh, Beauregard. Beauregard, yeah. That's right. Yeah, I'm just going
50:10
Speaker 3: to turn into a giant blueberry and float away, I think.
50:12
Speaker 3: But no, I still love them. And they're great, full
50:15
Speaker 3: of antioxidants. Everyone should eat them.
50:16
Speaker 2: I don't think you're nearly as obnoxious as she is either.
50:19
Speaker 2: So like that's absolutely fine. No, no, not even close.
50:22
Speaker 3: But also, yeah, I love a blueberry. So does my toddler.
50:25
Speaker 2: Like a whole punnet to him is just like, it
50:27
Speaker 2: doesn't hit the sides. And then he goes, he holds
50:29
Speaker 2: his little hand out and he goes, one more? And
50:31
Speaker 2: I go, what are you doing?
50:33
Speaker 3: Like that was right now, $ 7.
50:35
Speaker 2: I do not think so.
50:37
Speaker 3: Thankfully, when they're just growing freely on bushes outside, I
50:40
Speaker 3: can just have as many as you like. And there's
50:42
Speaker 3: No restrictions to toddlers.
50:43
Speaker 2: Do not tell my toddler that because he will think
50:46
Speaker 2: that he's currently living a life of neglect. My friend,
50:51
Speaker 2: the next question I've got for you is what's your
50:54
Speaker 2: debt situation look like? So we have a credit card
50:58
Speaker 2: that we use for cashflow purposes and points that we
51:01
Speaker 2: pay off every month.
51:02
Speaker 3: It's currently sitting at zero. I double checked. I paid
51:05
Speaker 3: off my HECS last year, which was huge because as
51:09
Speaker 3: you can imagine.
51:10
Speaker 2: Sorry, I know you went through a lot last year,
51:13
Speaker 2: but you somehow managed to finish your specialist training, pay
51:17
Speaker 2: off your hex and still like get ahead. That's wild
51:21
Speaker 2: to me. I'm so impressed.
51:23
Speaker 3: Thanks.
51:24
Speaker 2: Sorry, I'm in hospital, but I'm still slaying.
51:26
Speaker 3: Don't worry. Well, I didn't intentionally pay it off. It
51:29
Speaker 3: just got paid off by... Let's just take the credit,
51:32
Speaker 3: all right? Let's just take it. Take it. And our mortgages,
51:36
Speaker 3: and so no other debts other than that.
51:38
Speaker 2: Very cool. So tell me a little bit more about
51:40
Speaker 2: your best and worst money habits. At the start, you said, look, Bea,
51:43
Speaker 2: I think I'm an A minus. I've got a little
51:44
Speaker 2: bit to go. And I feel like you have absolutely
51:47
Speaker 2: proven that.
51:48
Speaker 3: So... What is your best money habit? I think it
51:52
Speaker 3: stems from my money story and being quite frugal. I
51:56
Speaker 3: don't enjoy shopping, probably because as a child, I learned
51:59
Speaker 3: that there was shame associated with it, but I don't.
52:02
Speaker 3: I actually get stressed buying clothes or jewelry or makeup.
52:06
Speaker 3: I'd much prefer to buy from an op shop and
52:08
Speaker 3: that aligns with my values so much more. So I
52:11
Speaker 3: spend very little on, I guess, things that gender stereotypes,
52:16
Speaker 3: women typically spend money on. I think I'm pretty good
52:20
Speaker 3: at delayed gratification. So that helps with saving goals significantly. Love,
52:24
Speaker 3: love it. What's your worst?
52:26
Speaker 2: Like what makes you an A minus instead of an
52:28
Speaker 2: A plus, my friend?
52:30
Speaker 3: My worst is definitely how much money I'm willing to pay,
52:33
Speaker 3: spend on my pets. Oh, I can't.
52:35
Speaker 2: No, that's not bad. That's good.
52:37
Speaker 3: That's an investment. Or our dog has probably had at
52:41
Speaker 3: least a unit's house deposit worth of surgeries. Oh my goodness, why? Why?
52:49
Speaker 3: Both knees, a bleeding mass on a liver, a gallbladder, pancreatitis,
52:53
Speaker 3: kidney failure. I would have spent the money too. Yeah.
52:56
Speaker 3: And I regret none of it.
52:58
Speaker 4: Yeah.
52:58
Speaker 2: There's actually not one thing that I'd be like, oh yeah,
53:00
Speaker 2: you're right. You can get to be an A plus
53:02
Speaker 2: if you neglected your dog.
53:03
Speaker 3: I'm so sorry.
53:04
Speaker 2: But like in that case, hey guys, money diaries today
53:08
Speaker 2: is never going to be an A plus in her
53:10
Speaker 2: own eyes.
53:11
Speaker 3: I also got some fertilized duck eggs from a crop swap.
53:14
Speaker 3: And now I've just spent nearly $ 300 on the equipment
53:17
Speaker 3: to raise ducklings. on a whim. Stop. You are literally
53:20
Speaker 3: living my dream. I live a great life. Oh, I'm
53:24
Speaker 3: so excited. Do you know what type of ducks they are?
53:28
Speaker 3: Carhe Campbells. Okay. I love them. They're a very stereotypical
53:31
Speaker 3: looking duck. No, they are.
53:33
Speaker 2: They're the best kind. And they're very affectionate and they're
53:36
Speaker 2: going to follow you around. And if you are there
53:38
Speaker 2: when they like, they're going to imprint on you.
53:40
Speaker 3: This is so exciting. But that was just a whim
53:44
Speaker 3: on a weekend. I grabbed the duck eggs and now
53:47
Speaker 3: I've I'll probably sink in $ 1, 000 on duck care and
53:51
Speaker 3: I don't really care. But that's probably my worst money
53:54
Speaker 3: habit is what I'll spend for animals.
53:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, but they're going to look so cute. Like they're
53:58
Speaker 2: like proper little pond ducks. Like, oh, that's so exciting. Anyway,
54:03
Speaker 2: I'm so sorry. We have absolutely run out of time,
54:06
Speaker 2: but it has been an absolute pleasure chatting with you,
54:08
Speaker 2: getting to know you, sharing your story. You allowing me
54:12
Speaker 2: to be pervy not only on money, but on your
54:14
Speaker 2: medical history was very much appreciated.
54:16
Speaker 3: And I just.
54:17
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. I just know that the community
54:19
Speaker 2: is going to get so much out of this. And
54:21
Speaker 2: if they didn't and they don't take anything but this,
54:25
Speaker 2: get your insurances sorted, please.
54:32
Speaker 4: The advice shared on She's On The Money is general
54:35
Speaker 4: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
54:39
Speaker 4: On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
54:42
Speaker 4: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
54:46
Speaker 3: If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the.
54:48
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